Getting started with online marketing is a lot easier when you’ve had some training. Fortunately, many Web sites exist to provide everything from "netiquette" to e-marketing.

You’ll be surprised how fast you can learn how to use the Web effectively. Moreover, every new tool that you master gives you one more method of increasing sales. Go check out some of these sites for yourself:

Learn basic netiquette.

Visit Albion.com, which has been greeting new Internet users since 1990. Learn to avoid embarrassing mistakes by learning to do things “right” online everytime.

Learn business netiquette.

Once you have the basics down, start learning proper business e-mail formats and procedures. Most of this is common sense, but there are many things to avoid.

Learn e-mail marketing. Within two years, if you are not actively using e-marketing in your business, you likely won’t have one. Your competitors will have buried you. E-mail marketing is not that hard to learn. Moreover, it’s a great way to keep clients as well as get referrals from them.

Learn online marketing to women. You need to reach women with exactly the right message. When you do, you can bet that it will affect your sales.

Learn how to swap links. The more sites on the web that have links pointing to yours, the higher your site will come up on many key search engines. The best links to get are reciprocal ones with online home-related firms who don’t compete with you. These include carpenters, maids, painters, landscapers, plumbers, electricians---services that homeowners use when they’re planning to move in or out of a home. This is your perfect target market.

Update your software. There is no economy in using outdated software. As soon as software upgrades come out, you should get them. This is especially true for browsers and e-mail programs, because older, versions are slower and klunkier. You should be using version 5.5 of Internet Explorer and version 5+ or 6.0 of Netscape Browser. If you use AOL, your latest version is 6.0. For e-mail, your version of Microsoft Outlook or the free Outlook Express should be version 5.0 or greater, same for Netscape. Your latest Microsoft Word version is Word 2000.

You can download free upgrades of free Microsoft browsers and e-mail programs at the Microsoft site with new “bugfixes” for Microsoft software, plus “Critical Updates” that you definitely should have, can be found there, too. When was the last time that you checked for them?

Always run anti-virus software. Update your anti-virus software daily. The most boneheaded destroyer of data is the person who lacks antiviral software, or else has it installed but has never set it to automatically download daily updated protection against new viruses. If you are not running up-to-date antiviral software this minute, you should shut off your machine until you get some installed.

The two leading anti-virus software makers are Norton and Mcafee. If you lack virus protection, go to one of these sites and download your antiviral software now. Alternatively, get it from your local retailer and be sure to read the owner’s manual that comes with it. You will never make a better software investment.

Within two years you’ll need to be savvy about web marketing, not only with a computer but also with Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and even cell phones and other hand held devices. You’ll need to be savvy if you want to stay competitive, or maybe even still in business. So why not start learning now? Take a shot at learning by yourself…..online. It’s there and it’s free!

Part II - Don't Be Internet Naive will run Monday.

Published: May 25, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, Internet Marketing in Real Estate and Internet Marketing. Bill is also webmaster of Orange County Real Estate, among the most-awarded known Realtor® sites. Visit his website, Koelzer.com or e-mail him at .